Thursday, March 28, 2013

The sound of humanity scraping bottom

I've covered some horrific stories in my 30 plus years as a photojournalist in Miami, but I don't believe I've ever covered one as depraved and sickening - even by Miami standards - as this story uncovered by the Miami Herald's David Ovalle.

When a 13-year-old runaway threatened to leave a Miami pimp, police say, he forced her to a Liberty City flea market tattoo shop to ink his street name, “Suave,” on her eyelids.

The vicious twist to a human trafficking case surfaced this month when Miami police arrested Roman Thomas III, 26, who already on probation after serving four years in state prison for having sex with a minor.

Thomas was wearing a state corrections GPS monitor when Miami police arrested him on March 18

The girl, dubbed “Sparkle,” was pimped through the classified advertising website Backpage.com, police say. Thomas and a woman plied the girl with liquor, marijuana and the drug Molly as she had sex with men at the Miami Shores Motel.
[...]
Thomas will be formally charged in the new case on April 13. Another woman, Shanteria Sanders, 23, who also has “Suave” tattooed across her chest, also was charged in the case. Both Thomas and Sanders face charges of human trafficking, false imprisonment, lewd and lascivious exhibition and delivery of a controlled substance to a child.

Thomas, 26, has a long criminal history. In 2008, he was charged with attempted murder and other felonies. He wound up pleading guilty to the felony battery and four counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child between the ages of 12 and 16.

After his four-year prison sentence was done, Thomas was released in September, and placed on five years probation with the ankle monitor.